At any given moment there are 4 different types of shoppers coming to your store. Depending on the product domain, their intentions, preferences and product knowledge, they want to explore and navigate your store in different ways.
Due to these different intentions and preferences, you can actually end up losing sales, purely because you didn’t address these shoppers in the right way.
1. The Expert Shopper
“I know exactly what I want!”
This is the Expert Shopper’s battlecry. They’ve already educated themselves and know exactly what they want. They will go straight to your search box, type in what they want and confidently pick out their fitting result.
Expert Shoppers are product-focused. They know exactly which product they want, and if it’s not easy to find with you – they’ll go somewhere else.
What to offer The Expert Shopper:
- Effective search function that is fault-tolerant. Autocomplete function that supports searching by product name or product id are some examples for this.
- Fast and easy checkout with multiple payment options.
- Don’t ask for too many details. Keep it simple, especially during checkout.
2. The Lister
“I know which features I want!”
The Lister. They know what they want their product to do, they just don’t know which product does it. These shoppers are the cross-over between The Expert and The Browser.
Listers are clearly feature-focused. If a Lister is looking for a camera, he or she will know that it should work in a variety of lighting conditions, have a certain zoom range and be within a certain price range. Of course, many cameras fall into this description.
Your job, is to make sure they can find the product that comes with the required features and allows them to pick the best one for them – quickly.
What to offer The Lister:
- Meaningful filters that allow the shopper to reduce their options effectively.
- Quick way to compare several products and relevant features easily.
- Clear and intuitive product details and pages.
- A product advisor that’ll allow them to switch between expert-mode and novice-mode.
The one key to remember with the Lister is that their mind is not made up. If you fail to help them narrow down what they want to a small and easily comparable list, they will not purchase from you. They’re too undecided. Take them to certainty.
Check out the Infographic
Get a quick overview and learn how they shop and how your challenge looks like.
3. The Browser
“I know you’ll inspire me!”
The Browser is someone with no clear direction of where to go next. They begin to browse, as a past-time activity, trusting that your store will show them what they really like and want.
Browsers are benefit-focused, meaning they’re looking at their purchases with “how will this improve my quality of life?” in mind. Shopping is an emotive experience for them.
What to offer The Browser:
- Personalized, lean-back experiences that are tied to their purchase history and real-time behavior to let them discover products they’ll like.
- Large, high-quality product pictures that trigger their emotions.
- Quick-view options that allows them to take a better look at products quickly but doesn’t disrupt their browsing sessions.
- Clear and transparent review ratings for products, to show them how others used or enjoyed certain products.
You need to make sure that they’re seeing the personal value in the products that are being offered.
4. The Novice
“I don’t know … can you advise me?”
The Novice. This is the shopper type you’ll be seeing most frequently, no matter what industry you’re in or which products you sell. They make up the majority of your audience as a whole, and they’re the ones that should drive your overall customer experience innovations.
They’re your first-time visitors. They arrive at your store without knowing what they want exactly and if you have what they need.
Generally, they know their needs and the problem they want to solve, but don’t have a clear track of preferences to judge. Novice shoppers are pretty vulnerable to choice overload. With the right approach and by offering the expert advice they need, you can make them feel confident enough to make a choice.
What to offer The Novice:
- Expert product advice – Product advisors that ask relevant and easy-to-answer questions.
- Individual and need-oriented recommendations.
- Comprehensive information to understand USPs, features and their benefits.
If you want to appeal to a wider audience of shoppers, you have to make sure to offer the right tools and features that have positive impacts on the shopping experience of all types of shoppers.
Now go, armed with this knowledge, and improve your sales!